While I was playing around with the Restaurants Nearby in Google Maps today I got really curious about what restaurants would be the Top 10 in Malmö on the major discovery platforms. What do people see when they search for something to eat in Malmö?

I logged out of my accounts and did incognito searches to get a non-biased result list, but the reality is that you are most likely logged in to your accounts on these services which skews the results based on your taste, where you have been and where your friends have been. But I wanted to get an image of what results you’d get if you’re not familiar with the city.

Foursquare

Generic vs Individual

As I am seeing the results, I think it’s a sign that generic lists based on strangers ratings and reviews doesn’t necessarily show you places you’d like to visit - but how would you know?

Foursquare’s mission is to be “a piece of software that learns about you, where you go, what you like and what you don’t like” and I believe that’s the future of location discovery. The more you feed the platform about your taste, places you’ve been and liked, the better it can recommend places for you.

The problem I see with ratings and reviews of strangers or even friends is that you don’t know if you have the same taste as them. Most likely you don’t. Recommendations from people only gets valid if you know what they like and they know what you like - and that’s really hard to know. A discovery platform could potentially be that friend that knows you better than anyone, even better than yourself! How about that!

]]>http://en.palander.se/top-10-restaurants-in-malmo/ba6ad014-4262-4b04-8d01-1a257a4ba966Sun, 16 Aug 2015 15:20:38 GMTSince the very day Martin Thörnkvist showed me The Feltron report back in the summer of 2008, I’ve been intrigued by life logging and the quantified self movement.

I’m by no means extreme and way too lazy to do any manual work to track some things properly. I’ve tried to track my calories intake & manually enter every penny spent and failed fatally. But when I was writing the 2014 in review and 2014 in Music I saw some numbers that made me want to dig deeper.

The numbers themselves does not mean much. But we can see patterns and understand ourselves and our behaviour from data that it’s harder to see without it.

I truly admire the work of Nicholas Feltron and the reports he make, and at some point I had a very vague idea doing a report like his. But the amount of time, patience and knowledge he’s got and pour into the work, I lack. Therefore, here’s a non-designed basic report of 2014 by the numbers.

]]>http://en.palander.se/2014-in-numbers/5ebbf1c9-672b-40b4-8f07-1830a6fee558Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:55:06 GMTA bit more than a year ago I started to work on a iPhone / MacBook mount. I started by making some very simple prototypes, iterated to some more advanced 3D modelled & 3D printed versions. I wanted it in aluminum or some kind of metal, to match the MacBook and iPhone. I got stuck on the choice of material & lack of time to actually focus on it.

It's pretty amazing to see something that I've had an idea to, get real. It doesn't have to be made or created by me. I can't make real all ideas I have. And I enjoy seeing other's take on the same problem/solution.

I remember Ehsan Noroozi saying once that he liked to give ideas away, because if 1000 of his ideas got made by others, the world would look 1000 times more like he wished.

We don't need to, and can't, fix all the problems ourselves even if we sometimes would like to think so. And, what I like about seeing other people working on the same problem/solution is that you're onto something. It's a confirmation you're on the right track.

2014 was a very special music year for me, I went on a music discovery journey.

I’ve always listened to a lot of music, in 2014 I listened 42,698 minutes just on Spotify. That’s 711 hours and about 2 hour average per day. And I would say it's not even 50% of all music I listened to last year. My habit has mostly been to listen to the same music over and over again until it’s unbearable then go look for something new. But last year I listened to more new music than I’ve ever done before.

In late 2013 I was talking to Johan Sandén about an idea I had about a product that would hype startups (as a joke), calling it Hype Machine and he told me that already existed as a music discovery service. I’d never heard about it but downloaded Hype Machine instantly and fell in love with it. New music every week, curated by music blogs and the Hype Machine community.

That app, and an intense exchange of about 500 songs with my music muse made me listen to more than 5126 unique tracks from 2491 unique artists. That represents more than half of the artists I’ve listened to since I started to scrobble to last.fm back in 2005, and 30% of unique tracks I’ve listened to in total. Yep, that’s a lot of new music.

It’s been amazing to discover so many new artists and music that I’d had never listened to before. I decided to go through what I’d favorited and liked, by looking at data from last.fm that collects data from my listening on Spotify, SoundCloud & Hype Machine.

Spotify made Year In Music, a similar automated year in review as Facebook but just as I feel Facebook’s algorithms didn’t tell my story, Spotify’s My Year In Music didn’t really tell the story of my music year. But, I totally see why people use them, because it’s insanely time consuming to make your own. But once I’ve started a project like this, I apparently need to finish even if it grows out of hand. But here it is.

Favorites 2014

From 317 favourites on Hype Machine I tried to select some of my absolute favourites, but damn it’s hard. The playlist consist of 34 amazing tracks and here’s my top 10 favourite tracks of 2014.

Top Artist 2014

So, even I’ve listened to a lot of new music I’ve apparently also put some albums and artists on repeat. London Grammar, SBTRKT, Banks & James Vincent McMorrow were the artists I obsessed most about.

I got to see London Grammar at Popaganda in August and James Vincent McMorrow at Vega in Copenhagen in November, and this February I’ll go to Sonar Stockholm and see SBTRKT. I think the common theme here is their voices, it’s just so smooth to my ears.

Playlists 2014

I’m really too lazy to make playlists. I wish they’d create themselves based on the music I listen to; genre, artists, mood etc. One thing I reflected on early last year is how the music you listen to can tell the world about how you feel. I created Alma, a playlist with quite emotional music - which I needed at the time. But I was scared to make public what I listened to because of what it revealed.

2014 in review

I’ve never done this kind of year in review before but I was inspired both by Björn Jeffery who’s review I read every year, and by the automated Facebook year review that has passed through my facebook feed.

When I looked at my own it just didn’t seem right. That was not how my year was. So I decided to make a not-so-animated and cute version. Algorithms, and number of likes on a photo just doesn't make it. There's no reflection, no analysis, no thought. I wanted to make my own hand crafted review to actually reflect on the year and what happend, so here we go.

Emotional roller coaster

So 2014. What happened really? As usual I was left with a feeling I didn’t do that much. I had a picture that it was pretty much just work, and not much more. Then I had a look at my timelines and realised quite a lot happened actually. On many levels.

The year started on an emotional very unstable ground. I was in mourning mode, of things that happened in 2013. I went to Stockholm to clear my mind during the christmas and stayed until the beginning of January. There was some very intense and hard times professionally as well, and it felt like everything was falling apart.

A New Chapter

At the same time I tried to move on to a new chapter and I met M that helped me in that process, at the same as she became a part of the process. We were open and honest about it, but it was hard to see things clearly. We got closer and the relationship grew deeper.

I spent much of the spring in Stockholm for a variety of reasons. I really love the city; the atmosphere, the people I know there, the urbanity, scenery and diversity. I also needed to get away from Malmö and get get perspective on things, and I had to rent out my apartment to keep me afloat. And to see her of course.

During the late month of the year I rented it out again I stayed with friends and in the boat I bought together with a couple of friends. I’m deeply grateful for all the support I’ve got, and open doors and bed offers during the year. Without that I don’t know what I would have done.

Debt

The year started with a personal debt with an extremely steep payback rate that has lasted for the full year. It’s thankfully almost over and I’ll be past the bootstrap life that I’ve had for the past few years.

I don’t think it’s made my life worse to have extremely limited resources, because if I look back I’ve made so many things and experienced so much despite that. You can live bootstrapped for a while and I think I did it longer than most people would cope which also had a price on a personal level. It caused extreme tension and lots of fights, because it was an extreme situation, for an extreme amount of time. I don’t want to be in that situation again, if I can avoid it. Been there, done that.

Biking Vätternrundan

2013 was a running year. I was running a couple of times a week until I injured my knee at the end of the summer. I started to bike instead and André talked me into biking Vätternrundan, a 300km race. I didn’t know why I accepted the challenged but I did probably because it sounded so far off and unimaginable. And I wanted to push myself with new things, and oh boy was it a push.

I’d never really biked longer than the usual city distances. My knee wasn’t well and I didn’t know if I would even start, but we spent late spring and the beginning of the summer to get kilometers on the road. The recommendation is to have at least 800km before doing the race and I think I manage to get 600.

We did the race and I finished at 12.51h, the medium time among the participants. My goal was to reach goal, so I was happy and satisfied. My knee was fine until the last 40km but it took me past the finish line though I couldn’t walk properly the next day.

It’s amazing what you can push yourself to, when you have made up your mind. I was determined to cross the finish line. I had decided that I would, unless there was a risk of permanent damage on my knee, which the doctors said there wouldn’t be. It’s by far the toughest mental and physical challenge I’ve undertaken. So thanks André for pushing me to do it.

It’s also amazing what physical exercise does to your mental strength. The more I biked, the better I felt. By the end of May I was past the worst roller coaster rides and things got smoother again but I remember that I was in such a bad shape on my birthday that I didn’t even want to celebrate it, at all. I was crying half of the day. André and Jessica pulled me up from my down and invited me for a dinner at their place. It felt like the best gift anyone could ever give.

#Brygghäng

The summer felt like an American highschool movie that had no end. We were a loosely knit group hanging out at the board walk in Västra Hamnen. We did pretty much nothing, and maybe that’s why it was so good. Lack of plans, lack of todo’s. Just be with people you like, eating, relaxing, talking, singing, dancing, swimming. Repeat. The weather and climate really does make a difference of what we do, how we are, and what is possible. When it got cold, those relaxed meetups were gone.

Sales Got Done

In September we finalised a first version of a sellable product at Pinmeto and started to reach out to companies we thought would be interested to try our thesis. I took the lead in sales since Daniel was heading the financing & investment.

To my (and others) surprise I found so much energy in the selling process. Meeting people, learning about their needs, travel got me on a high. I think it’s the most fun phase since we started. I started to travel to Stockholm a lot again, since pretty much all major chains has their HQs there.

The reception has been over all expectation, and pretty much every meeting ended with a request to send an offer. But we’re working with large enterprise and the sales process is slow, I’ve learned. That’s probably been the most frustrating part of selling.

More Stockholm

After the summer I started to spend more time in Stockholm again and reconnected with M. Apparently we couldn’t stay away from each other, and I’m happier than anyone about it. She’s really made this year to what it is, and helped me through so much. And the amount of music and texts we’ve ping ponged is nothing but insane. She’s the best kind of inspiration anyone can imagine and makes me laugh so hard it hurts.

Barbados

At the beginning of the year we decided to move the office offshore for two months this winter, to Barbados. For waves, heat and sun - not for tax reasons as some people thought. First I was sceptic, not going away, but the location.

I had quite a negative picture of the island - being a #whitetrash place like Mallorca. Then I remembered that Mallorca made me change that picture completely when I actually went there. You just have to stay away from the touristic traps and swamps. Another reason I was sceptic was the size of the island. It’s smaller than Bornholm, with only 277.000 inhabitants. I like to travel to cities preferably of 5 million people and above.

But it’s been great and I’m very happy we moved here. I don’t envy the friends back home having to deal with the eternal darkness and bitter cold windy weather. But I envy the internet speed they have. Here, it’s like being back in the 90’s. All syncing & backup services needs to be shut of to be able to do anything at all. It makes you reflect on the importance of infrastructure and specifically internet access. It makes all the difference.

New challenges

I’m so ready for a new year, with new challenges. The first and obvious one is staying apart from someone you hold dear. As in so fucking far apart. I don’t know what the others are yet, but I know they’ll come. And I’ll try to embrace them with open arms. 2014 was a year of letting go, and listening more to the inner feelings and needs. I will continue on that track, and be even more me, a better me. To give more of myself, and to go all in on things I believe in. No holding back.

Behold, here's my 2014 in bullet points!

January

Started of the year with #TLNYP, The Last New Years Party by Studio Total. I decided to go last minute, on my own despite having no idea who was going or what it was going to be. Or maybe just because of that. Turned out to be a 1000 people masquerade. Amazing start of the year.

Hitchhiked from Stockholm to Malmö with a girl who’s hobby was dressing out as a Middle Age woman, drinking alcohol and crowning the next King and Queen in their society. A refreshing and fun car ride.

February

Went to Copenhagen with Helena to test drive a Tesla. We also drank Champagne, as you do with her. Tip, don’t drive it if you can’t buy it. It’s amazing and addictive.

Worked on a prototype to an iPhone/iPad holder for Macs. That project, as so many others halted in that stage. I wanted it in aluminum, but the reality required plastics of some sort and I defeated. Time was another factor. I didn’t want it to take focus of PinMeTo, which it would have if I would complete it.

Went to Sonar Stockholm and saw Naomi Pilgrim. One of the best concerts in recent times.

Started a raw food diet. It didn’t last for all that long, but I felt so much better while it lasted.

We closed a first round of financing for PinMeTo with Wingefors Invest, something that’d been in the works for some months. It got official first in May for various reasons.

Witnessed the quickest arranged conference in history - Independence Day, organised by Hampus & Joel. From idea to conf in 10 days. I thought I was optimistic arranging Location Day in 30 days last year.

June

Biked Vätternrundan, a 300km bike race. It was the biggest mental and physical challenge I’ve ever made. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’ve decided to do something. I finished at 12h51m and was surprised I even survived. Log 1 & 2.

Spent a lot of time at Sundspromenaden in good weather and good company

Became God father to Esther

Vätternrundan medal

July

Bought a bike and started to bike again after a year of walking the streets of Malmö. The good side of not having a bike was that I got to listen to so much good podcasts, something I’ve completely stopped with again. I don’t have the natural time to do it anymore.

Got a new title as Head of Sales at Pinmeto. Not really, but we started to push our product to the market and did an insane sale push the last couple of months which was very successful. We reached out to about 200 of the largest Swedish retail chails, hotels & banks.

Met up with old time friend Sara Higley and her boyfriend in Copenhagen who’s visiting from Cali.

Sailed Malmö - Copenhagen - Malmö, and did the first night sail ever. We hit ground for unknown reasons but it was a wicked experience. Michael’s promised me more to come, but from now on we’ll make sure to navigate straight.

Started to grow hair to get a new haircut for the first time since 2005. #lastchance

Me, Kajsa, Sebastian, Veronika & Joel @ #startupÖL

October

Went to the #workhack conference, organised by Anders Mildner. A good day that will happen in January again, you should go.

Moved out of the sailboat, when we had to take it up on land. And yes, it got really cold the last few weeks.

Lost my wallet with all cards in it between Minc and Dockan, but a kind guy found me on Facebook and later called me up and gave it back. Good people!

Got two tickets to James Vincent McMorrow concert in Copenhagen from Kajsa (thank you so much). It’s one of my other absolute favourite music discoveries this year, so I was so happy to get a chance to see him live.

Challenged myself and my friends to not complain for 24 hours. It went pretty well until Micael asked how it was going in 23rd hour. I don’t think of myself as one who complains a lot, but it was harder than I though not to complain about anything.

Represented Minc at #CPHFTW Town Hall #4, the biggest tech event ever in Copenhagen. The moments before entering stage was the worst I’ve had going on a stage. Imagine a pepp talk, but the opposite. That was weird.

Today's We're delighted to be acquired letter is coming from Moves who's been building an amazing health / location tracker up until now. Now they join Facebook to work and improve "their products and services".

They say the app will live on, but the question is for how long. It tend to do so until it doesn't anymore. I'm happy for the team, but I'm also sad that yet another great product didn't make it.

I remember Aral Balkan asking the team when they launched how they were going to profit from the app since it was free and since it was tracking one of the most sensitive thing possible, your location, continuously. The answer was quite simply: acquisition.

It's already freaking people out if you look at @movesapp twitter mentions. According to Moves they will not commingle the data with Facebook but it isn't something new that people react strongly when it comes to privacy, location and Facebook.

I've enjoyed using the app since the day it was launched, but the question is for how long I'll continue to use it. I've become accustomed to track every step I take and that was, and still is the value for me.

It's hard to believe that the app will continue to evolve or that anyone else will continue to develop for the API now since the company doesn't really exist anymore and the team is going to work on Facebook stuff. So the question is if one should move on right away to something else, or stay with it as long as it lasts.

An idea that keeps coming back to me when this happens is that of a personal API, to which you can push data to from various accounts. So even when a company or service goes down, your data stays with you and you can plug in a new service to keep feeding your archives. Services comes and goes but the data should just flow. But that's a topic for another post.

Entrepreneurship to me is about making the changes you want to see in the world. It's about giving a shit. It's about making a difference. It's about taking a stance. It's about making things better. It's about helping others. It's about creating a better society, and a better reality for everyone. No one can do everything but everyone can do something.

We Are All Entrepreneurs

I believe we are all entrepreneurs deep inside. We're born entrepreneurs. As children we all thrived; we built things, we created things, we run and we fell, we grew and we learned from our mistakes. But we didn't stop. We continued until we made it, to prove to ourselves and the rest of the world that everything is possible.

Everything Is Possible

Entrepreneurship for me is about everything is possible. It's about creating something out of nothing. When everyone else says it's impossible, you prove them wrong. In every situation we have a choice. We can choose to say "it's not possible" or we can say "it must be possible" and work to make it possible. Because, really, everything is possible. As long as you have the willpower.

I believe you only really need one thing to be an entrepreneur and that's the willpower to change something that is broken. It's about making a choice. To watch something be as it is even if it's bad, or change it. As an entrepreneur you are a change maker.

Role models

I recently heard about a group of guys in their early twenties who were so tired of the hopelessness in their suburb in Malmö that they decided do something about it. They have started a group called Storebror, which means older brother in Swedish. They want to be the older brothers of the ones who don't have any role models. They are making a difference for the younger brothers, helping the rise and shine. Now they are thinking about how to scale it to more suburbs and more cities so that more young guys get out of the hopelessness. That's entrepreneurship for me.

Freedom

Entrepreneurship for me is also about freedom. It's about freedom to choose what to do with your life and how to live it. You are setting the framework for how you want to live it. That doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will become rich, in the traditional sense. But it means that you will be able to live your life the way you want. But believe me, it's hard. It's years of hard work and sleepless nights. Many times it seems like a dream from the outside, but I think most entrepreneurs will tell you about the nightmares they have. About how it's not working out they way they thought, about how years of time and energy spent on projects in the end didn't turn out to anything.

Fail & Learn From Your Lessons

You will fail. It's a part of the journey. Don't fear, we all fail. Mark Zuckerberg fails, Steve Jobs has failed. The only way not to fail is to do nothing at all. But just like when we were small, we learn from our lessons. It hurts, and it's painful as hell. But it's worth it, because the reward of helping someone else, helping hundreds, thousands or millions of people is so rewarding. Just like when you were little and finally made it on that first bike ride without anyone holding you. That feeling.

Make a difference

Entrepreneurship for me is about making a difference. It's about making a difference in society. It's about making a difference for others, and it's about making a difference for yourself. There are many forms of entrepreneurship. You can build a company and change the world through products or by design. But you can also start non-profit organisations to help people in need and improving people's lives. It's all the same. You see a problem, and you decide to fix it.

Do It Your Way

If you truly want to make a difference, you have to do it your way. There's no right or wrong, there's only different ways of doing things. People will tell you over and over again how things work, and how things should be done. Listen, evaluate, and then do it your way. Because whatever people say, it can be done differently and better and that's why you are in it. Because you believe you can make it better and make a difference.

Be Your True Self

As an entrepreneur you stand out. You stand out, because you dare to go a different path, than most people do. You stand out because you take risks, because you do it your way. And because you dare to be you. And I think you should always be you. Always be your true self. First of all, it's the only one you can be. It's the role in life that you're trained to be. It's the role you know naturally. And just being yourself will probably make you stand out. When we try to fit in, we leave our true self. But to make a true difference, we can't fit in. If you can't fit in into the current system, create your own. You don't have to work 9 to 5. You don't have to wear suit. You don't have to do things like they've always been. What you have to do is to create your own set of rules.

Be Persistant

Being an entrepreneur can be killingly hard. Because doing things differently is hard. You will be questioned. You will be laughed at. You will be fought. But be persistent. People, and society will try to get you into the moulds of the norms. There is a natural power that will try to get you and me and everyone else to just fit in. Fit into the communities and the society as a whole.

Find Mentors

I believe finding mentors to guide us through our entrepreneurial journeys is dead importantly. It's our way of coping when it's hard. There are so many decisions to be made throughout the journey, and most of them you've never done before. It's lonely out there but there are people willing to help. Let them help you. And then pass on the knowledge and the lessons you've learned to others. That way we grow, and we help others grow.

Face Your Fears

I think we all fear. We fear throwing ourselves into the ocean of the unknown. We're afraid of the unbeaten paths that nobody has walked. We're afraid of making hard choices that are important. We're afraid to be laughed at, because we want to be liked, and we want to belong. But a part of the journey is about facing those fears. We just have to do it, or else we won't progress and evolve.

Ask For Help

The thing I believe we fear most is asking for help. Ask for help. Ask for a lot of help. Most people are willing to help you much more than you think. And it's first when you ask for help, that you actually will get help. And you will need help, be sure. At first you might think that you can do it all by yourself. Very soon you'll find out you cant't and it might hurt, but it's the truth.

Be Crazy And Break Rules

If someone tell you that you're crazy for doing what you do, you are probably onto something. And break rules because if you don't you won't change anything at all. I believe entrepreneurship is really about breaking rules. If we all would just stand in line like everyone else, nothing would ever happen and we wouldn't change the world. So go out there, break rules and be the difference you want to see in the world, to quote Gandhi.

Interesting, and probably a radical lecture in some people's eyes, by Christopher Ryan. It's about monogamy and the history of our species from a sexual standpoint. Christopher argues that the current Victorian norm of relationship and sexuality is a relatively recent phenomena of humans and maybe we aren't at all made for monogamy.

We have appetites. I think it was Schopenhauer who said, a person can do what they want but not want what they want. And so what I'm arguing against is the shame that's associated with desires. It's the idea that if you love your husband or wife but you still are attracted to other people, there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with your marriage, something wrong with your partner. I think a lot of families are fractured by unrealistic expectations that are based upon this false vision of human sexuality.

Malmö & Minc in two recent articles about the startup scene as a place to be and to look at.

Aron Solomonwrites in BetaKit as one of five tops to the Canadian tech scene to look elsewhere than to Silicon Valley and points to Sweden and Malmö:

I’m convinced that as we imagine the future of incubation and acceleration, we need to look to exemplars such as Minc in Malmö. [..] Minc is not only the region’s pre-eminent co-working space, they’ve re-imagined the relationship between startup and institution.

TransferWise lists Malmö as one of top 8 emerging tech hubs in the world to pay attention to, along Dublin, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv. They write:

Once an industrial town transformed into a nucleus of young innovation, Malmö has attracted startups such as live video-streaming service Bambuser﻿, stock photography platform Foap﻿ and micro-donation tool Flattr﻿."

How pretty cool isn't that for a town like Malmö.

We have a thriving and rising startup community and with the recently launched #MalmoStartups and its community group initiated by Joel Larsson it can only get better and stronger. I'm happy and proud to be apart of it all.

I had another meeting with another potential entrepreneur and idea owner. They had an idea to an app. Potentially a killer app. But who knows? I don't because unless I was willing to sign an NDA they couldn't talk about the brilliance of this idea.

Fine. You have an idea. You think it's awesome. You believe in it you say. But, you also say that you don't believe in yourself enough. I've been there. I was shit scared of sharing the idea of ambadoo at the very beginning. Imagine someone stole the idea. Imagine someone I told about my brilliant idea just started to execute. Yes. Anyone could. But who would?

Would I, or any other person, drop everything that we do to execute some other idea that we barely know anything about? Do I have the knowledge or passion to be able to execute on it? Not likely. Would I do it to a person who reach out their hand. Never.

What I've learned over the years of starting up is that the more you can share about your vision and ideas, the more help you get executing. Today I was frank about this, and said that I can't help with anything if I don't know what it is they need help with. It's simple.

It's easy to believe when you get an idea that the actual value is in the idea itself, which of course, you later realise is complete nonsense. The only thing that matters is execution. You don't need to read much or talk to many to realise this. An idea is worthless. It actually is. An idea in itself is worth nothing. Not a dime. What's worth is the outcome, what you do with it. And you have to believe you can execute that idea better than anyone else, or why do it?

So, here's the public service announcement: I am deeply happy to share my knowledge, experience, advice & lessons learned from starting, running and failing companies. But I will never sign an NDA to do that.

Asking for help and simultaneously asking someone to sign an NDA is like saying: I want to brain pick you, but I don't trust you. I think it's very sad, because I really believe they, or rather we, would win so much from sharing our ideas and lessons learned. That's how we progress and move forward.

Update: Emil Stenström pointed me to the FriendDA, a more friendly and human version of a NDA.

I've decided to make 2014 the year I'll go healthy and figure out what's wrong with my digestion. There are obvious problems that I've just ignored most of my life. Last year I tried to figure it out, but failed pretty miserably after just a couple of weeks. When I was young we tried to figure it out but bad character prevailed.

There are some potential suspects; lactose and coffee for sure, gluten and sea food most probably. Fish quite possibly. So, I'm trying to be free of all that and go all veggie and berries. But it's damn hard. I love bread, and I drink coffee like it's water.

This morning I got this Long Distance Runner on my mind. I don't need to start saying no to cigarettes, weed and Es but apart from that I'll keep this my chorus of the year.

No alcohol, no weed
No cigarettes, no Es
No milk, no cheese
No eggs, no meat
Just mediation and peace
Red lentils, chick peas
Good workout, good sleep
Mo' sunshine, light breeze

Because, it's the only one you can really be. It who you are. The person who you've come to be. By birth and by the collections of experiences that your life is.

When you are yourself, you shine. There's no filter between your soul and your surroundings. People appreciate you, and if they don't, they don't deserve you, or your time. There will always be people that appreciate you for exactly the one you are. No more, no less. The rest is noise.

The further away from yourself you are, the harder it is to play life. It's harder because it's not the role you have inside, the one you know inside and out. It's hard because you need to come up with things that feels false and distant from your own values & feelings.

It's about finding environments and settings where you can be the true you. The honest and divine person that you are. It might take a lifetime to find. Like the rest of answers in life. But the sooner you can see who you are, what you need, what you want, the more you can give to the world around you.

And Isn't that what life is about?! Giving. Helping. Shining. Doing what you do best. To to be and do things bigger than your own self. Stretch as far as you can, beyond what you thought was possible. Only when you are your true self you can do that. Go do that.

I've had this recurring dream for a while. It's a dream that I think I want to become reality but I don't know.

I want to travel around the world by being remote controlled by random people. I want people to tell and direct me to people they would like to know. How they live. What they do. Who they are and how it is to be a person like they are in the environment they live in.

It could be a farmer in Uganda, a baker in Vietnam, fisher in Chile or any other person they are thinking about; how their life is. I want to share these stories as crude and honest as they can be,
With as many as I can. I'm thinking Google Glass connected to Bambuser or a Google Hangout.

I want to write about the reflections and impressions through the journey. I don't know how the dream came about. I don't know if it's ever to become real but I like the idea. I would get to know people around the world and get under their skin, into their daily lives.

People I would never meet otherwise and meetings that would never occur, because they would be so out of my usual travel patterns. It would probably give me perspectives of the world that I couldn't get any other way.

For the dream to become real, I would need to figure out a way to finance it and I would need to step down of all other collaborative projects and I think I would need to be on my own.

It doesn't scare me right now, but I think it would as soon as it became real. But I think I'll do it at some point in life. And now I've scribbled it down so I can remember it for the future.

I think it would be a hell of a ride; fun, demanding, crazy, eye opening, lonely, energizing, sad, empowering, wonderful and filled with experiences and lessons that would stick for life. A life journey.

You're gone. Once upon a time we had a relationship. I'm trying to think if it was ever any good, but at least it was. You filled a function in my life. When I was far away you made it easy for me to feel close to my friends and family. You had me.

It's been a while since I had any feelings for you. Well, that's not true. I've had feelings, feelings of annoyance. Thing is, you're grown old and fat. When we met you were at least young and filled with spirit. That's all gone. It's been gone for long.

Last time I called with you, you were so bloated I couldn't even find the one button I was looking for. The truth is, there are so many new kids on the block. Younger, brighter, sexier. And that's life. That's what happens. Nothing is forever.

When we started to hang out, you were your own. You knew what you wanted, you had aspirations. Then you got adopted, first by one family and then another. In the process it feels like you lost yourself. Your personality. Your soul.

As you know I'm always looking for the new, the fresh, the bold, the caring. I've found it and I will never look back. It's kind of sad, because our story goes a long way back. But hey, you still got a lot of friends, people who like you, and people who are too lazy and comfortable to move away, stuck in a loop of adption horror. I'm just not the one. Sorry.

Let me introduce to you a couple of new lovers in my life. Appear.in is cool. She's really cool. She dares to say fuck you to most browsers and discard any other old bastard. She's using the latest moves that only a new browser can do.

She's game for parties up to 8 people, in the browser dude. She's gorgeous. She adjust. She really speaks my language. When I want to see someone, she's the one I'm turning to. The only problem I have is that she doesn't charge me.

That worries me because I don't know for how long I can have her close to me. I mean, how are she going to pay for her food? Housing and all that you need to survive and to be excellent to others.

When I'm more in a mode of shexting, like the cool kids do today, I feel pretty old fashioned but Facebook is treating me so well, and she's learning and growing so fast, there's no one that can even come close to the smartness she's talking.

Man, she knows it all. And she's got communication skills like a maddog. You can be anywhere, the other part can be anywhere and you can text and see instantly if they got the message, if it was delivered and if it was read. Who beats that? You can even see exactly where they are, and if they're on the move or sitting on their ass.

That my friend, is what I call madskillz. You can even fucking call anyone, from your mobile, not knowing their number or where they are in the world. It's magic, it really is. People talk so much shit about her, but I don't think anyone can deny that she's matured over the years to become the best friend in many people lives.

She's sneaky but who isn't these days. She's not worse than your big brother. I mean, she's at least open that she's sneaking around in your stuff. She's open that she knows everyhting about you and using it in ways that benefit both your and her life. Most hers of couse, naturally.

I didn't ever think that I was going to tell the world that Facebook was one of my lovers but she is, and I'm totally cool about saying it out loud. I mean, the truth is that she is what I onces wanted to create and give to the world, so it would be strange if I didn't fall in love with her after all, wouldn't it?!